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Assignment 12

In her essay, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving,” Lila Abu-Lughod discusses cultural explanation and the mobilization of women.  During the War on Terror there was a skeptical focus on Muslim women. Lughod discusses the connection between the War on Terror and the cultural mode of explanation.  When the tragic attack on New York’s World Trade Center and the U.S Pentagon occurred there was this need to understand culture of the attackers. There was this need to understand the meaning of a religious ritual and about the Islam faith and about it’s women to kind of help people grief and figure out the reason behind these attacks.  Lughod makes a good point about the need to learn about the Islam culture, she questions how is knowing about the culture of the region, particularly its religious belief and treatment of women going to help us understand why these tragic events occurred. Instead of focusing on their religious belief, people should focus on the role the U.S had with relation to the development of the repressive regimes. The U.S used the oppression of Muslim women as a means to justifies war as a necessary to free victimized Afghan women. During the time that the Taliban were in control Afghan women were forced to wear burqas and if they were seen out in public without them they’ll be punished and sometimes killed. Many people believed this to be a violation of women rights. When the U.S took control over the country many claim to have succeed and help the Afghan women be liberate when in reality even after they were free from the Taliban these women continue to wear their burqas because it is part of their religion. Lughod argues why must their be a correlation between the way people cultural dress and political problems. There shouldn’t be a reason to label people from a certain culture as oppress because of the way they dress and also major political decision shouldn’t be made because of it either.